Special Education

'Bounty' of Funds?

A new study links the rise in special education enrollment to the
funding systems used by a majority of states.

Those states distribute special education money to school districts
based on the number of special education students. Such arrangements,
dubbed "bounty" systems by the report's authors, create a financial
enticement for schools to identify more and more students as needing
special education, argues the report by the Manhattan Institute, a New
York City-based think tank.

The authors compared the rates of growth in the special education
population in those states with the rates of growth in states where
districts receive a lump sum of special education money regardless of
enrollment of such students.

A disproportionately higher growth rate of special education
enrollment, the authors say, occurred in the past decade in states with
"bounty" systems.

Special education enrollment nationwide grew from 10.6 percent of
all students to 12.3 percent between 1991- 92 and 2000-01. During that
time, special education enrollment grew from 10.6 percent to 12.6
percent in the 33 states (and the District of Columbia) that had bounty
systems at that time. The enrollment level in the states with lump- sum
systems grew from 10.5 percent to 11.5 percent.

The belief that simply giving more money to special education boosts
the number of students thus designated is not new. But some advocates
for special education have said that theory fails to consider more
complex reasons. And, they argue, no incentive exists to incorrectly
designate students for special education. Because special-needs
students cost school districts big money, the thinking goes, any
additional aid secured through an increased roster of special education
students would go right back to the education of those students.

Two Republican leaders of the House Education and the Workforce
Committee said Congress would make sure more money for special
education was tied to reform.

The report "underscores the need for Congress to focus not simply on
pumping money into the special education system, but also on how this
money is used on behalf of children with special needs," said the
statement released by Reps. John A. Boehner of Ohio, the chairman of
the committee, and Michael N. Castle of Delaware, who chairs the
subcommittee on education reform. "Results, not just funding, must be
our focus in renewing the [Indivduals with Disabilities Education
Act]."